How We Traveled

Some of you may know that we have an AdventureVan that we purchased nearly a year ago. It will probably be our main mode of vacation travel going forward, but for our cross country trip we had the pleasure and good fortune to be able to borrow Shawn's parents' RV.

I've never thought we should own an RV. I always thought of us as "real" campers...dirt, tents, campfire, no shower. but now, I'm not so sure. It was really, really nice to have a bed, make that 3 beds, and a toilet and a shower! and a sink, and a microwave/convection oven, and the infamous hot box of death (the toaster oven). We also had a full size refrigerator, and room for all of our snacks. Owning an RV is now on the list of "hmm, maybe that would be cool."

This particular RV is a 2004 Pace Arrow. We also towed a Honda CRV, which acquired a Thule box for our leg of the trip. In total, we had a 34' RV with tow, so we were probably about 50' long. We did use the tow car several times to tour on roads that were smaller, and to zip around Yellowstone National Park. While it makes things more difficult to travel with a tow car, I was glad we had it. It also made me feel safer, because it gave us another way to get out of the desert should our primo ride have trouble.

In the picture above you can see one of the "slides." That's the front room, or living room that slides out. The couch then unfolds like a futon and that's the bed where Jack slept. It's a decent sized bed. Shawn and I have slept on the couch several times...and I took a nap there once while Shawn was driving on this trip--just once I swear.

Katie is not talking to her stockbroker here.

Katie slept at the dining room table. You can see here on the left, Katie is sitting at the table (she's on her headset playing "Talking Tom" on her iTouch..that is another story altogether). The wood behind her is the head board. The table unhinges from the wall and rests on the edges of the bench seats, making a slightly-larger-than a toddler-sized bed. It was sort of a pain to put the table up and down, but in the evening it was part of the routine that changed our "car" into our "home". Katie was perfectly happy taking a nap on the bench while we drove, the seat belt snapped around her waist as we bumped along. Jack, who never naps in the car anymore,  put his head down on the table a couple times and snoozed on the days when we woke him up too early.

Shawn and I slept in the back in the Master Bedroom, which has a very comfy bed. There's another slide in the back that creates enough room so you can walk around the end of the bed and get into the drawers under the wardrobe.  I loved the light setup in the master bedroom. I really enjoyed my book light, even if I only read ten pages on the trip.

We are hardly tiny people (Shawn is 6'5" and I am 5'11"), so the whole setup was cozy, but  RVs are like boats, so it was all laid out so well, wand everything had a place, except our excess of jacket. Moving about, finding a place for everything, life, was much smoother than I thought it would be.

The Minor Things I Would Change if I Had a Magic Wand:

big stretch

• More seat belts. This RV was clearly designed for two people traveling without guests. There is only 1 seat belt at the dinette. There were two on the couch, and the two seats in the front for driver and naggravator (yes that's what we call my position navigator + aggravate).
• Change the movable rocking recliner to a permanent mount chair that turns...and add a seat belt. This seat is behind the driver side, and is basically unusable while driving. It did do a great job of holding our backpacks throughout the journey.
• Give the sanitation hose its very own compartment separate from the clean water, cable and electric. 
• Add more plugs in the kitchen. We use a power strip. It works fine, but anytime I can get rid of a power strip I am a go.
• Add more plugs in the front. 
• Okay, add more plugs everywhere and have them be able to be used while we are driving. We have this problem all the time now, in every car. We just have way too many things that need to be plugged in.

Overall it was an amazing way to travel. Really. In spite of whatever hazards we encountered, it was still pretty great. Let me tell you..being able to take a bathroom and a refrigerator everywhere you go? So awesome. Kid needs to 'go potty' sure.. go for it. Need a snack? Sure. Let me grab you something from the snack drawer kiddo. Want a sandwich Shawn? Let me get you some chicken salad on wheat. Oh, another soda? Just a moment. Got to go potty again.. no problemo.

I know we could do most of those things in a smaller form factor, but the RV really felt like it was just the right size for our not-so-little family of four. It will be a completely different experience to drive in the AdventureVan which I am already itching to do. Katie said, as we pulled in to our driveway last Sunday, "When can we go on a big trip in our AdventureVan?"

Just another way I  know we had a good time crossing the country... I keep wanting to wake up in a car the size of my first studio apartment and make breakfast.

The Great Peperoncini Explosion of 2010

While not of the magnitude of the Port Chicago Disaster or the Halifax Explosion, in its own way this will go down within the annuals of RV history. Just yesterday, after driving for many hundreds of miles, I ended my day looking forward to a nice cold beer. Now for those of you not familiar with boating or RV travel, items may shift during travel, so you should be very cautious when opening the overhead, or any bins for that matter. It is with this sense of caution I cracked open the fridge trying to grab a cold one and begin my evening. At the slightest crack, the door jumped towards me almost knocking me down with it's 6.25 pound heft (ok not really). At that exact moment, I caught the glimpse of what can only be described as the green jar of doom as it arched ever so gracefully past my outstretched hand and headed towards the floor. For those of you not familiar with the green jar of doom it's a normal sized jar of peperoncini a delightful sandwich addition which I so lovingly purchased at Walmart for my wife who has the occasional hankering for these tangy peppers on her sandwiches.

So this jar of doom, which for Walmart was fairly normal sized, but when placed on an RV becomes beyond gargantuan (everything does, myself included) is heading down, down, down, like a briny jar of condiments (humble apologies to the great Johnny Cash). As it reaches the lowest edge of the fridge the fates intervene to ensure that the precise edge of the jar would hit the correct firmness of surface to ensure absolute and complete annihilation of the jar and it's contents. Now if you know my family you know a few good jars have died in the daily battle for sustenance. This particular one took an approach which I must say, while shocking, deserves kudos for ensuring maximum destruction. Oma and Papa (owners of said RV should stop reading now).

I was immediately faced with 2 main issues. First, a pile of pickled peppers (yes,  I was waiting all day to write that so Pfffttt) combined with semi-microscopic shards of glass and second, a virtual river of unnaturally green. flavorful, fluid flowing down the linoleum hill towards the carpeted lowlands. Before I continue you dear reader should know one important fact. My son Jack, awesome kid that he is, loves it when people clean the floor. Sweeping, vacuuming or mopping up no matter, he wants to be right in the middle of it sitting in the pile of debris laughing. Normally this is somewhat endearing. In this case of glass shards mixed with briny peppers - not so much. So I am fending off Jack with one hand, scooping peppers and glass with the other, while trying to block the briny creek with my foot, all the while yelling for Jen to throw me the paper towels.

A quick replacement sponge for briny creek dam - the size 16 initial design had a major engineering flaw in not being able to block fluids - and we had the second issue under control. The first - the big pile o pepper glass - still sat waiting for me to thrust my meat paw into it's midst and pluck its delicious yet now all too extra crunchy mass from its resting place to be deposited into the trash. With a sad resolve I carried on removing what was once spicy condiment but now just a tragic slipping hazard. Jen arrived with reinforcements so I could go from zone defense to man to man making sure Jack stayed back. Jen jumped into the middle of operation pepper detox and we slowly gained control of the situation. Katie got involved, providing the early warning system of any time Jack began heading back toward the mess - for I was now one hand down (beer holder ya know).

Frankly in retrospect, pouring pickled peppers on the floor may have been something we should have just tried without the breakage of glass. It sure does smell better than my family after several days of 95 degree heat. To be fair, we just washed 'dem kids as the heat combined with the hours of play in the sandy playground made for a piquant bouquet to say the least.

The moral of our story. Any time you place a pack of picked peppers, a perfunctory placement may promote pausing in your progress as you pick pepper from places you prefer peppers not to perch.